


finally found it

by tavrosroofies (troof)



Series: Full Circle [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, Fluff, Hunter Keith, M/M, Rimming, Road Trips, Sex, Supernatural AU - Freeform, Werewolf AU, Werewolf Shiro, Werewolves, pretty much one big giant road trip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:14:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23672140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/troof/pseuds/tavrosroofies
Summary: Keith, half-werewolf extraordinaire, still chases after his parents. Keith still loves Shiro, and at one point, Keith and Shiro almost die. What's new?
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Series: Full Circle [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1704535
Comments: 3
Kudos: 31





	finally found it

**Author's Note:**

> ^^so that seems like a flippant summary but it's actually very accurate. I don't think I could be more accurate :p
> 
> This is a continuation of the fic I did for a bang last year called [running after something](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17329154). I recommend reading that first, but it isn't necessary to understand this fic. This fic also works as a standalone.

They make it through the winter. Keith genuinely enjoys spending Christmas with Shiro, and when the new year comes, he has an even better time celebrating with noise crackers and cake. 

The cake is Shiro's idea. The noise crackers are Keith's because after the good time he had with the last holiday, he figures it's worth it sometimes to celebrate. He needs to start small, though, so one thing at a time.

Shiro seems proud that he's making progress. Keith plants his hands on his hips, and with a thumb, Shiro swipes the frosting off of Keith's nose that Keith didn't even know was there and puts it in his mouth. Tasty.

Kosmo huffs in the background. Keith wonders what he thinks being forced to bear witness to their ever-deepening romance, but it's probably not a big deal. When he sees dogs sniffing each other, he doesn't get too bothered.

Things are getting serious now. Shiro's been living with him for three months. Keith wants to give everything he can to this relationship that doesn't interfere with hunting, and that means getting over any last hangups he might have over being with Shiro.

Being with a werewolf.

He loves Shiro, really loves him, but--he doesn't want to be like his dad. 

Sighing, Keith runs his fingers through his hair and flops back on his straw mattress. The hunting community is already judging him. "I'm gonna need a job." The money he got from that haunted house last week is running out, and he's over his budget now that the money from getting Shiro didn't come in. "I was going to get a lot of money for you," he says, blowing at a bang that flops in his face.

"I'm glad you didn't?" Shiro says, raising an eyebrow and making to squash Keith with one of their several pillows. Keith catches the pillow before it can hit him and knees it off. 

"Me too, but it's still a problem." Every person he calls now seems to know about that last job. So what if it wasn't completed? He didn't think the supernatural community had such a tight network. Keith rubs his fists over his eyes until he feels like he's doing some damage. "People won't hire me. We need to go to another area." 

He's spent so long building up a reputation of clean, efficient service, and now that's likely to be ruined. Granted, this one incident will blow over and Shiro's town will just think he ghosted them, but if he keeps taking hits to his credibility, it could ruin his livelihood as a hunter.

"You mean...hit the road," Shiro says hesitantly.

"Yes." 

"Well, this was nice while it lasted. I guess it's time for another adventure?"

"Guess so," says Keith. He takes a moment to look around at all that they've built, the cabin that he inherited from his father--Keith keeps the cabin running, for sure, he builds fires and caulks the chinks between the logs when the cold air comes in--but Shiro gives it life. Shiro brings in the decorations and insists on buying rugs for all the doorways. It's much better with him around.

But these days, home is Shiro. Anywhere he is is where Keith wants to be. Besides, the cabin was getting boring. Moving around is what hunters do.

"I wanna make this road trip about finding my mom." 

"Any particular reason?"

Keith thinks about telling him, he really does. But some things...can't be vocalized.

If Krolia acts like a typical werewolf: bestial, bloodthirsty, killing indiscriminately every full moon wherever she goes--then Keith could never forgive his dad for loving her. Even if Shiro appears to be different, he doesn't think he could make himself like his father for loving him. They say love blinds you to a person's worst attributes. His dad was a person with good judgment, once. What if he makes his dad's same mistakes?

On the contrary, he could be wrong. Maybe his dad never made a mistake, and Krolia was one of the few good ones. He didn't know that good ones existed until Shiro came along. 

When his dad died, grief overcame him. The shock of finding out he was a werewolf came like being doused in cold water, and he was angry. At the time, he didn't have time to process what it meant being half-werewolf, when he thought all of his life that he was human. No one told him explicitly that hunters don't love werewolves, he sort of pieced it together himself. Maybe all along this hatred was a product of anger. At his dad for not telling him, and for making him live a lie.

But it all depends on the character of Krolia. And Shiro cares for him so much, Keith doesn't want to tell him about his reservations. So he doesn't.

"Hm. Brooding," Shiro observes. 

"Yeah, well. Gotta fit the profile of the mysterious hunter." It's a clear evasion, but Shiro seems to be okay with that. He tries to open up to Shiro when he can, but he just...can't do it with everything.

"We'll have to find someone to take care of Kosmo."

"He can stay with Pidge." Pidge is a family friend.

"You sure she'll be okay with that?"

"Yeah. She loves Kosmo. Said she'd watch him for me if I ever needed it." Pidge is a cat person if he ever saw one, but she makes an exception for his pet.

The next problem is he doesn't know where he's going. His mother left before his dad died and the orphanage took him, so the orphanage has no information on her either. All he has to go on are some notes from his dad.

"Hmmmm." Shiro chews his lip and Keith sits up on the bed with his hands around his knees. "Let me see that journal you carry?"

Keith tosses it to him and Shiro flips through it. 

"Do you ever contact any of the people in here?"

"Most of the phone numbers are out of date."

Shiro keeps flipping through the pages. "Bet the addresses aren't. These are some of your dad's friends in here. Some of them have to know his wife. We could drive to some of these towns and see what they know."

"That could work."

In fact, that's how they should and do structure their road trip: looking for work in areas where his dad has contacts.

For some reason, Keith never pieced together that everything he needed to find his mother was already in his hands. From what he knows about psychology, it's something about being too close to the issue, or being so afraid of the outcome he is unable to see what comes next. 

Truth be told, he doesn't want to find her. He cauterized that wound a long time ago. She didn't want him as a child, so finding her as an adult just opens him up to experiencing rejection again. But he needs answers for Shiro.

\---

Their first stop is a motel called Moon Lodge. Keith picks it for the obvious pun value and scorching low price.

The lodge has an archway that designates the front lobby, then a green roof over what looks like a prison cell block.

Keith parks the car, talks to the manager at the desk, and returns carrying both their key cards.  
They pick up their luggage, but at the threshold of the motel room, Shiro won't go in. 

"What is it?" asks Keith.

"My time is coming up," Shiro says after a deep breath, and it makes Keith wonder how much courage he had to work up to say that.

Oh. Shoot. As a half-werewolf an awareness of the moon is coded into his genes, a knowledge that plays at the back of his mind, yet he somehow forgot that the full moon is tonight.

"What about it?"

"Well, I shouldn't stay here."

"Where else would you stay?" 

He thinks again they're going to get into a fight over this, because every time they talk about this, that's what it devolves into.

The true reason Shiro worries is because he doesn't want to be in that state around him. Adam bit him when he got too close to the werewolf during the time of the full moon, and Shiro has said many times that he doesn't want to hurt Keith the same way. He wishes he could remember who he was before he was bitten, though, the Shiro who rushed to his boyfriend's side just because he wanted to soothe and comfort. 

Instead, Shiro relaxes his posture and says, "You want a werewolf? In a motel room?"

Keith nods, and hopes he's cute, persuasive.

He's been curious, ever since Shiro told him he found a way to control it--what is his method? Is it sedation? Some kind of drug? If it's not locking himself up in a shed in seclusion like Adam advocated, then what is it? Maybe he runs with actual wolves. Maybe he's found a support group of sorts.

Keith doesn't know.

He'd really like to find out, though. It helps him feel closer to Shiro, knowing things about him like this. If he knows how bad it truly is, he can help him better when he's having a bad night. From what he's seen, being a werewolf can cause some struggles with being human; and he wants to be there for those problems as well, even if he can't stop Shiro's transformation.

Shiro raises an objection over tearing up the room, but Keith has fought a variety of heavenly menaces inside hotel rooms, and every time he's left with scorch marks and angry sigils on the walls. Sometimes it's unavoidable.

Shiro strips down to his boxers, and Keith dons an undershirt he brought for this very occasion. He takes the first turn in the bathroom. 

"Say I bite you. What's the worst thing that could happen if I end up biting you?" Shiro asks.

"It gets infected."

"You know that for a fact?"

And it's not just the biting, but also the mauling they're dealing with. If Shiro comes in and paws at Keith in his lupine form, he could do serious damage to Keith's sleeping body.

But he's not going to throw him out like some animal. Shiro already thinks he's not human enough to deserve that, and it saddens him to see.

Keith stops where he's brushing his teeth and rinses his mouth out in the sink. He comes over to Shiro and wraps his arms around his bulk. "No, but...rationally speaking, what's the worst thing that could happen if you introduced werewolf saliva into the blood of somebody who's already half-werewolf? I can't become a full werewolf. In the craziest of worlds it wouldn't make any sense. You can't change me with something I already have in me." Keith likes this position because he can feel the rise and fall of Shiro's breath through his clothes. "And besides, you won't bite me. I bet anything you have more control than you think you do. Trust yourself." 

He taps Shiro twice and lets go and Shiro looks at him like he's unlocked a secret in his chest.  
"T-Thanks," he sputters. Keith looks for that telltale dusting of pink taking over Shiro's cheeks but he doesn't see it. It's a shame, because that's always his favorite response.

Shiro has incredible control. When they met that chilly morning in the woods, that's what he saw shine through Shiro's eyes. Three months later and he still thinks that's why they haven't ended in disaster, why they didn't on that day. 

Back at the cabin, there were a few times when Keith rose early to kindle a fire; he padded over from his straw mattress in nothing but his dad's oversized shirt, underwear, and socks, only to find that Shiro was already up, eyes closed, sitting cross-legged by the window. Meditating.

"You make me feel like I'm not a monster," confesses Shiro.

\---

When dark comes, the night narrows down into just them under cheap white sheets. Shiro reaches into his jeans and pulls out what looks to be an inverted pyramid on a cord. At first Keith thinks it looks like a fishing weight, but after a closer look, the spirals and carvings prove it to be much more ornate.

"It's an amulet," Shiro says after Keith looks his fill, holding it up between both ends of the cord. "I got it from a witch two years ago. She performed a ritual on it so when I transform, I keep my humanity. The charm is wearing off, though."

Keith studies the pink glow in the pyramid that shines through the grooves reminiscent of lava. It's bright most of the time, but the longer he stares, the more he sees it fade slightly--not pulsing, but it definitely dims if he stares long enough.

"What are you going to do when it does wear off?"

"Find her again, I guess."

 _That doesn't sound like a plan with much certainty,_ Keith thinks as Shiro reaches behind his head and fixes the amulet around his own neck. They should definitely make a detour to find her after they track down his mom. It's easy enough since they're on the road.

Keith spends a moment looking down, lashes fanning his cheeks.

"You gonna be okay here?" Shiro asks.

"If you are." Keith raises his eyebrows, imploring.

"I will." Shiro strokes his arm once, gently, then moves away.

The back wall has a sliding glass door with no screen attached, so Keith leaves it open for when Shiro needs to hunt so he can come and go as he pleases. Tired from a day of driving, Keith falls back asleep after that, and he wakes during the night at a time he can't remember to Shiro standing in the light in front of the door with the wind fluttering in the curtain, silhouette bestial and grin feral. But he doesn't come to any harm after that, and from the absence of any screams, he deduces, neither does anybody else.

What he doesn't expect is how _well_ Shiro controls himself. Catching a glimpse of his eyes again he sees that tightness, that focus, and it does something to him underneath his prickly exterior.

Keith's never been with Shiro during the full moon before, and he underestimates the emotional impact of the transformation from beast to man. Shiro needs to kiss Keith when he gets back, so much so that he barely manages to rinse off before tackling Keith to the bed.

As he kisses Shiro, the guilt bubbles up, but he pushes it aside. It's like having a racist opinion, or voting for the wrong political party.

"Whoa, whoa!" Keith says, putting his hands up, more out of shock than any real protest. Shiro pauses, then goes back to kissing Keith once it's clear that he doesn't want it to stop. "Missed you."

"I missed you more."

"Sap." Secretly, he likes it though. Shiro stays at Keith's neck, first nuzzling and then kissing. Keith likes the way the bridge of his nose slides along his jawbone--he almost turns away again the next time Shiro goes to kiss his mouth because he wants him to stay there.

He doesn't know how long they make out.  
Keith twines his fingers through his short-cropped hair and tugs, and they don't come out for a while. He's going to consider this a success.

\---

Their first job on this trip is to kill a dragon in Iowa. They deliver.

\---

Keith has a lot of time to think about what it means that Shiro is on the road with him. It's almost like a commitment, in some way--after all, they're stuck together, and they only have one car, miles away from their starting point. It's not like Shiro can go home if he wants to. It's not like Keith can, either, but that's beside the point.

It's possible Shiro doesn't have anywhere else to be. He stayed with Keith in his cabin for the duration of the winter, so either he didn't have a house or didn't care to go back to it. He doesn't have a job--Shiro said himself one time that he works odd jobs like Keith because he can't hold a stable position like he used to now that he's not human. The closest thing to being a police officer is guard duty, so he works security at different events from time to time. Not Keith's idea of a perfect life.

But it's more likely Shiro's just willing to help. He knows how important it is to Keith that he find his mom, and he wants to help out with that. He doesn't want to think beyond that at the moment.

\---

He doesn't mean to upset Shiro. It's his last wish. But sometimes, in loving Shiro, he feels like top is bottom. Left is right, and right-side-up is upside-down. Not that _Shiro_ is that way--more like he is. Being with him puts his insides in turmoil.

He should have explained everything to him before he came on this road trip. Everything. He deserves that, at least.

"I'm nervous about finding her," Keith says. "What if she's exactly the person I thought she'd be?" 

"If she's exactly the same, then you don't have to deal with her. You don't have to have her in your life any more than you did before."

Shiro slings an arm around Keith's shoulders and this time Keith leans into it, pressing into him like a big cat. He thinks Shiro's referring to the callousness Krolia displayed when she left him at the age of four for some unknown reason, but he's not talking about that. "No, but...do you know why I'm finding her?"

Shiro shakes his head minutely and stares at him with a blank look. "I thought it was just time to find her. A lot of kids want to find their parents when they're older. Is there some other reason?" 

"Yeah. I never wanted to be like my dad. Falling in love with a werewolf...I know that I _know_ you, but I still feel that hesitation. I think if I can meet her and wonder why I was so angry at him in the first place, I can forgive him. And then this will be easier for me."

Shiro goes still.

"Forgive him for what?"

"Falling in love with a werewolf." Shiro still doesn't move, just pulls away and removes his arm from Keith's shoulder and Keith isn't very emotionally intelligent, but he knows that's a bad sign. "What?"

He wants to reach out for Shiro's wrist, but thinks better of it at the last second.

"You really can't see anything wrong with that?" Shiro asks, voice soft. 

Oh.

He does, but he's a hunter. Generally speaking, their communities don't get along. It says way more about Keith than it does about Shiro. He's trying to work through this before it becomes too late.

His heart sinks as Shiro pulls out his jacket from the coat closet then grabs his keys. "I'm going out, do you want anything?" 

Keith shakes his head. He tries to say 'no,' but even that small vocalization takes too much effort. He sits there as the door slams.

After Shiro leaves, Keith crawls under the blankets.

He tries to make sense of everything he feels for Shiro, everything that was important to him in the past, but it all swirls together in the middle of his chest like matter entering a black hole.

When the morning comes, they pack up their clothes and get an early start on driving because they have a long way to go today. Keith feels the grogginess in the upper lids of his eyes, and Shiro doesn't interact beyond taking sips from the giant iced tea Keith bought him at the nearest Flying J.

All he remembers for the rest of this awful day is driving, and first they switch off, but after that he goes so long he doesn't even notice when the sun goes down and the freeway takes him off of well-traveled main roads and onto the dirt roads of the country. Intersections come less frequently. The number of lanes dwindles. Finally, the number of businesses they pass on the side of the road gradually drops from several to zero.

Occasionally, they pass the burnt-out lights of a gas station or a neon sign advertising liquor. But at this time of night, both those places are closed. Shiro slumbers in the passenger seat. 

Way in the distance, Keith sees a bright light, and thinks it must be a good idea to follow it. It's not until some time later that he feels a tap on his shoulder.

 _Keith. Keith, what are you doing?_ Shiro's voice comes hazily through the fog. 

He keeps following the light for some time after that, feeling as if he is not only hearing Shiro through a haze, but driving through one as well. It was a nice spring night; when did the air get so foggy?

"Keith!"

He feels a jerk as Shiro wrenches the steering wheel from his hands. They swerve just enough to avoid hitting the car in the direction of oncoming traffic.

His palms are sweating. He has just enough presence of mind to pull over after that, and at Shiro's suggestion, they turn around and stop at the nearest hotel. No need to take unnecessary chances.

\---

"Travelers are dying from lights on the road," their contact says once they sit down at his house for tea. Their contact is a man with an extravagant mustache and more extravagant eyebrows. Not that those are the most extravagant things about him, but that's the first thing Keith sees. "So far, four people have died just this month." _Four deaths?!_ Shiro nearly chokes on his tea, then clinks his teacup against his saucer and leans forward. "Well, closer to one, actually, but four sounds more exciting. It's a small town, so most of these things don't get reported."

While Keith cocks his head and squints his eyes in annoyance, Shiro is much faster to recover. "Do you have any idea what causes the lights?"  
Keith might just sit back this time and let Shiro do the talking this time. It'll be a lot less stressful.

"The prevailing opinion here? Weather. A lesser-known opinion? Ghosts! Most definitely ghosts. But the sheriff says it's some type of 'natural phenomena.' And if it is, it can't be stopped." Implying that ghosts are easier to stop than the weather. At least they're not dealing with a skeptic, here.

"Why don't you get them to block off the road, then? If there are so many deaths?" asks Shiro. 

"The sheriff won't do it. There's too much revenue to be gained."

"Sounds like a cover up to me," says Keith. He finishes the last of his tea in one big gulp. By now, it's a little cold, but still good. 

"We're also looking for someone?" Shiro cuts in. "Krolia Lynnhaven. It seems like she knew someone in this area, but we can't get in contact." Shiro shows him the journal entry.

"Hmmm...doesn't ring a bell. But if she knew someone in this area, it's very probable that I know them. If you have something of hers, I could divine her location." 

"We don't have anything of hers," says Keith.

"Oh, well, I guess we'll have to do it the old-fashioned way." The man's shoulders visibly deflate. "But still, my services come for a small fee."

"How about this," says Shiro, "how about we take care of those lights for you, and then you help Keith find his mom?"

"She's your mother? Oh-ho, happy day." Keith feels slightly ashamed that this stranger knows he doesn't have a mom, but the relief builds, too, a lightness in his chest due to the fact that they might have actually found someone able to point them in the right direction. "Yes, I'll help Keith find his mum. As long as it's a ghost."

Once they're out of earshot, Keith tries to tell Shiro that he doesn't take jobs like that, because he can never guarantee the outcome, but Shiro doesn't listen.

"Something tells me it's not weather. And, if it is, we get the sheriff to shut this place down. Simple as that." They walk down the deserted road in the daytime, examining the pavement and the underbrush. "Every time there's an accident, it happens in the exact same place. That's not a coincidence."

Keith doesn't know. He saw the light last night for a longer period than Shiro, and in fact he was the one who got caught up in it, not Shiro.

It didn't look like anything more than a glowing orb to him, way off in the distance.

Keith stops fingering the pavement to dust for clues to look up at Shiro, really look at him. "You saved me."

"I saved _us_ , we were traveling together."

"No, you were riding in the passenger seat. If I hit that car at all, it would have been the driver's seat that got the brunt of the collision. I would have died. You would have survived."

Shiro shakes his head and says that's not how it works, but Keith can't help feeling indebted to him, somehow. Like he owes him. An overwhelming feeling of gratitude bubbles up in his chest and it makes him want to lean towards Shiro, curl up on his chest, but Shiro won't acknowledge it.

\---

Shiro doesn't see the light. He drives down the road a couple nights, back and forth over the same spot. Nothing.

Then they make it to the library and string together the newspaper stories of all the people who've seen the light, and all the people who died from it.

"All of the people who saw it experienced loss," Shiro proclaims, a split second before Keith puts it together. "This woman in the '90's saw it shortly after losing her unborn son. The next time it happened, it killed a teenager within a month of her losing her dad. We find the first case, we find our ghost."

"I dunno, could be a coincidence." It's in his nature to play devil's advocate.

"Yeah, but look at these--" Shiro scrolls through a decade's worth of unexplained deaths, all with the same pattern. "I guess loss has an effect on people." In the articles, most bereavements happen recently in the subject's life, but a few are years removed.

Shiro's gaze holds Keith's, and somehow it feels like an admission. Keith looks away and fixes his eye on some random guy typing. He isn't ready to have this conversation yet. Everything on this trip loops back to not only the loss of his mom when she left, but the loss of his dad and the ideal of the perfect hunter he was left with. It's Pandora's box. The warmth of Shiro's hand settles over the back of his, and he can barely handle that.

"You know what to do?" Shiro asks when Keith finally turns back to him.

"I do." Using both hands, Keith pushes up from the table. He puts his notebook and pencils in his backpack, then stands towards the door. Shiro follows him once the computer logs off.

Like countless others, that night is filled with salt and gravestones and flame. Everything is new to Shiro. But they get the job done, regardless.

\---

"I'm sorry," Shiro admits another night when they're safe inside the motel. "I overreacted."

Keith presses a finger over his mouth. "I don't think you did. But can we just forget it? I don't want to talk about it." 

"You sure? I'm sure there's a lot to talk about." 

"No--" He tries to pry Keith's finger off his lips, but Keith keeps it there with his other hand.

Once Keith makes it clear he's not getting anywhere in this conversation, Shiro gives up and flops back on the bed. They're both still exhausted. So it doesn't surprise him that Shiro just lays there for a long moment, closing his eyes and not bringing up anything.

"You always told me to 'trust myself' as if you thought I was some kind of 'good' werewolf, yet it wasn't enough to get you past your big hangup over actually being with me. It's an interesting contradiction," Shiro says eventually. This is exactly the subject that Keith wanted to avoid talking about, but there's no bite to it. It's just an observation. Keith smirks to himself. He noticed it, too.

"All that keeps me restrained is this amulet," Shiro continues. He brandishes it in front of him like a keychain. "Without it, I would be nothing. After a transformation, I wouldn't even be able to recognize you. So it meant the world to me that in another form, you let me stay in a hotel." 

Keith has something to say, but he restricts himself to just watching with eyes round as the moon. Shiro doesn't get deep on road trips; he's usually too busy sleeping or Keith has the classic rock up too loud for them to get a good conversation in. He doesn't want to ruin it.

"Granted, that isn't our natural habitat. I spent most of the night outside anyways, but the fact that I could have access to you…"

He wants to say something about how since he's half-werewolf, Shiro can't hurt him, but even that isn't true. 

"You don't give yourself enough credit," Keith says. He's seen trinkets like this before and he's sure it isn't just the amulet; enchantments like these always require some level of concentration to maintain. He's explained that several times. It's an old argument, so he doesn't bother rehashing it at this hour.

Shiro probably rolls his eyes; he knows that much.

Shifting positions to get comfortable with the pillows, Keith tucks one under his arm and twists his body towards Shiro. Shiro gets comfortable by pillowing his arms behind his head. Moonlight spills silver over his golden skin, and for once, Keith takes comfort in the fact that he's with him. 

He sees a scar on Shiro's neck, and he doesn't know if it's _the_ bite mark or _a_ bite mark, and he hasn't had the courage to ask yet.

"What do I look like to you, when you're in that state?" Keith asks, because he never transforms.

"Would you believe me if I said I don't remember? It's not a look so much as a feeling in my heart. You're an animal and your heart gets happy. Sort of a glow."

"Do you think it felt like that for Adam?"

"I don't know."

They haven't really talked about Shiro's transformation. It happened long ago and Keith has long accepted the fact that Shiro is a werewolf. But maybe it's wrong in his mind turning him from a man who transformed into a man who _is_.

"Where did you grow up?"

"I grew up in Arizona, right where they build all the rockets. Never got involved. I did go to space camp, though."

"Oooh, space camp. Sounds fun."

"Don't make fun," Shiro chastises gently.

"I'm not. That's someplace I really wanted to go, once upon a time." Yes, but then his mom left, and his dad said there was no time for silly things like space camp when the world had monsters to fight. Keith wishes he hadn't believed him at the time, but he was trained to believe that. His dad gave him weapons every day, but not once was he provided with a textbook about space. 

Merry Christmas, Keith, here's a Colt .45.

He trails his fingers up the ridges of Shiro's abs and watches him suck a breath in in the moonlight.

"Are my fingers cold?"

"No, I just wasn't ready for it."

Shiro's stomach goes in and out as he tries to adjust to the sensation of Keith's gentle touch, but the corners of his mouth curve up.

"You love to domesticate animals," Shiro teases him as Keith comes within his breath to kiss him.

"Damn right I do," Keith says, and he hopes the words aren't muffled by Shiro's mouth because he loves how horny Shiro gets when he teases him. Shiro's lips are so soft, he thinks, moving his mouth against them. They're going to be red and kiss-swollen by the end of this.

As he's focusing attention on Shiro, suddenly, hands sneak up his thighs and squeeze his butt. Keith jumps. Shiro laughs and slides his nose against Keith's.

"You wanna go for it tonight?"

Squirming in his grip, Keith giggles, too. "That would be great, but I don't have lube."

"That's okay, we'll figure something out." That usually means they'll find an extra packet in one of their pockets. But this time, it's different.

"I'm not kidding."

Shiro's eyes are searching, and the hands on his bottom freeze. "Um--that's okay. Can I eat you out?" Keith sucks a breath in through his teeth then, and the hands on his butt are pressing up. "Come sit on my face."

To be honest, part of him likes being with Shiro. It's the only way he can defy his dad and rebel against an upbringing of nothing more than focused violence, by loving the thing he hated. 

Keith wonders if Dad ever hated himself for loving his mom; he never got old enough to ask him before he passed away.

"Come here," Shiro says, easing Keith's boxers onto his thighs when Keith scoots up and straddles his chest. Immediately, he goes for Keith's dick and Keith can't think when he swallows the first four inches like that. 

"Oh, fuck." Automatically, he twists his fingers in Shiro's hair.

While he's distracted, Shiro pulls his boxers off the rest of the way, and Keith lifts one knee at a time to free the leg holes. Then he sits on Shiro's chin, and Shiro's hot breath tickles the hair along his taint.

"Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuck fuck." Tightening his grip on the headboard, Keith bangs the wood against the wall as Shiro spreads him open and places his lips against soft tissue. "Fuck."

"You good up there?" Shiro scoots up to be able to talk and Keith reminds himself that he can't crush Shiro, right, he has to be careful with this--

Shiro pulls him down again so his hole is right over his tongue. "Gnnn…"

It's the intimacy of the act that gets him--Shiro with his mouth up his ass in the darkness of an otherwise nondescript motel. They're filthy.

"Let me return the favor," Keith says afterward, while the cum dries on Shiro's hands. Shiro has already pulled him off.

It's easy enough to slide back on the sheets and pull Shiro's boxers down. The amount of fabric between them is slim.

Shiro protests, but Keith says, "Yeah, but I want you to feel this. Feel how good you made me feel?" Shiro is already so hard beneath his butt cheeks, but he really wants to spread him open and watch him moan.

Shiro doesn't object, so Keith pulls down his boxers, and Shiro obliges by pulling up his legs.  
"Such strong thighs," Keith says, running his hands up and down and laying kisses and bitemarks to them in the moonlight. One is almost as wide across as the span from Keith's pinky finger tto thumb. 

Shiro shifts against the sheets the more attention he pays to the want between his legs. Keith cups his balls and knows he's eager, so after giving a few licks to his cock he just couldn't ignore, he licks into Shiro's needy hole and takes satisfaction from the fact that he's giving pleasure.

"O-oh-"

Shiro's tendons jump and he scoots up further on the bed just slightly, unused to such devoted attention. Keith kisses his rim to make it all better.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to shock you."

Shiro's breath stutters in response. The sweat shines on his temple in the moonlight, and Keith reaches up to brush away a stray lock of hair that plasters itself to his forehead. So gorgeous.

The taste of him isn't so alien as Keith thought; it's mostly musk, and skin--similar to what he'd taste if he had swallowed Shiro down. But it's stronger here.

Shiro keens and Keith is delighted to see he grabs the headboard almost exactly where he did, except upside down--if he had claws, he would leave marks in the headboard, except he's only human now--human, and Keith's. 

The dynamics are different. Because he's not sitting on Shiro's face, he has to push more, be more deliberate with his tongue inside Shiro to pull out the noises he wants.

Shiro likes it when he goes slow. Teases.

"Put your legs up more?" Keith asks, and Shiro complies.

He remembers feeling devastated once Shiro's tongue slipped inside. His jaw aches, and saliva drips onto his chin, but he wants to give it to Shiro in the best way. Once he presses his tongue inside, Shiro clenches down hard. The reaction is immediate.

The warmth of it. The synchronicity. At first, Keith strokes Shiro's shaft lightly so he has some friction to get off on, but when Shiro rolls himself down furiously over Keith's tongue, Keith can't help but dig his fingers into Shiro's thigh and then reach up, to intertwine their fingers and have them intertwined when he comes. 

It's explosive. Shiro comes, and his whole body shudders, body rolling in waves. Keith watches him from below as best he can, his mouth still working in the hollow between Shiro's hips, and he knows, intimately, how it feels to come like that.

After he cleans up the mess on Shiro's abs, he kisses Shiro's mouth, and they stay lazily there for a second, Shiro not really having the energy to move equally into it, and Keith cognizant of Shiro's exhaustion but still not able to shake the desire to be close. Shiro closes his eyes and Keith does, too, drinking in the taste and texture of Shiro's lips. 

Only after does he realize he lies halfway on top of Shiro's torso, a disheveled mess. He's summoned back to reality by Shiro's hand weighing on his back, moving with the sound of his breath.

"We should brush our teeth," Shiro says.

Keith wants to grumble and complain, but the truth is, he just wants to fall asleep as a spoon with Shiro. Hygiene is the fastest road to that.  
"Yeah. You're right."

\---

Their trip is almost over. Shiro is lucky that Keith lets him drive, because he is an expert at stopping at places that do not need to be stopped at.

They pass fields of flowers on the highway that day, stalks waving in the wind crowned with red, yellow, and white, tinted amber in the polarized lenses Keith wears. The sun bouncing off his shades is blinding.

"No no no don't stop," Keith whines as Shiro slows down, pulls off to the side of the road.

"Someone has a severe case of get-there-itis."

"I just wanna meet my mom, okay?"

"We will. But we have to wait until tomorrow regardless of our actions. We can't drive fast enough to meet her tonight. Just take this moment."

Keith knows that. He crosses his arms and harrumphs as Shiro unbuckles his seatbelt and digs for something in the backseat. If he were in charge, he would have powered through with coffee.

When it becomes clear they aren't going to drive on without this break, Keith gives in, unbuckles his seatbelt, stands up, and stretches his legs. Shakes them out. 

He's surprised to feel circulation coming back to his feet. 

Then he looks around and squints. "It's beautiful out here."

"You can say that again."

He takes a couple minutes to explore, look closely at the buds and the grass and the trees around him. Apparently the object Shiro grabbed from the backseat was his camera. While Keith appreciates the opportunity to be outside the car, Shiro is already snapping pictures of blooms and wildlife.

"Can I take your picture?" Shiro asks. 

"Um, sure." Keith wrinkles his nose. He doesn't look good in pictures, but Shiro is another story.  
He does his best to smile, then Shiro shows him the screen.

"That's actually not bad," Keith appraises.

"You like it? I'll send it to you."

"Could you do that?"

Shiro is always trying to slow down, telling him to be patient. Normally, he would hate it, but he's glad they're taking this moment because everything is about to change. It allows him to process.

True to his word, Coran did some sleuthing and found out his mom lives in west Pennsylvania. He doesn't know how she makes her living, but she lives in a small village. He closes his eyes and inhales, then exhales, telling himself that no matter what he finds, he's not his father, and this won't change his relationship with Shiro. Shiro's too important for that.

Then he sneezes.

"Bless you," Shiro says.

"It's my get-there-itis."

"Ha ha, very funny."

When he meets Krolia, he has this whole spiel prepared about how he doesn't expect anything from her: not money, not motherly love, nothing.  
It isn't the matching thigh holster that identifies Keith to his mother, but the journal Heath gave him before he passed. 

Surprised would be understating how he feels when this woman pulls him into a hug. She wears a pixie cut and sports fur and leather--all armor, he supposes--yep, definitely armor. She smells like Shiro, a little bit, but not quite the same--wilder.

"You're a hunter," he realizes, based on their similar attire and her familiarity with Heath's wanderings.

"As is the case for those who spend time around hunters. We make more of us. Like Heath made you."

Keith feels the slightest sting of resentment, but they need him in this world. Not to fight men like Shiro, who simply transform, but to actively put creatures to rest. Spirits. Ghosts. Ghouls who are causing suffering, and who are suffering themselves.

Keith thinks of the small network his dad kept track of in his journal, how most of those contacts were outdated or didn't live in the same place anymore.

"Do you know more of us?" Keith asks, momentarily intrigued by the idea of a hunting community, but Krolia pulls him back to the reason he is there.

"Yes, but--I would be happier to learn about you. Where you come from, why you found me. I had searched for you for years, but I was lost."

So he tells her. He asks about her arrangement, how she lives as a werewolf. 

"I protect the children of this town by killing pixies and gargoyles, who otherwise kidnap them. In exchange, I have access to livestock."

That makes sense. He supposes Shiro takes livestock, too, if he can't find deer.

"Why did you find me?" his mother asks.

"So the reason I did it…I have this boyfriend. He's a werewolf too." He takes a deep breath, then tells her all about Shiro.

Krolia caresses her son's cheek. "Your love for him shouldn't depend on who I am."

"I don't think it does."

**Author's Note:**

> Not much werewolf in this one but my plan is to make the next one focus on Shiro
> 
> Finally got a [twitter](https://twitter.com/tavrcsrf)! Come find me and talk to me about sheith <3


End file.
